ABSTRACT

The connecting rod is a structural component cyclic loaded during the Internal Combustion
Engines (ICE) operation, it means that fatigue phenomena should be taken into account during
the development, in order to guarantee the connecting rod required lifetime. Numerical tools
have been extremely used during the connecting rod development phase, therefore, the complete
understand of the mechanisms involved as well as the reliability of the numerical methodology
are extremely important to take technological advantages, such as, to reduce project lead time
and prototypes cost reduction. The present work shows the complete connecting rod Finite
Element Analysis (FEA) methodology. It was also performed a fatigue study based on Stress Life
(SxN) theory, considering the Modified Goodman diagram.
Introduction

The connecting rod is the intermediate member between the piston and the crankshaft. Its
primary function is to transmit the push and pull from the piston pin to the crankpin because it is
rigid, and thus convert the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotary motion of the crank.
The usual form of the connecting rod in internal combustion engines.
The connecting rod is a major link inside a combustion engine. It connects the piston to the crank
shaft and is responsible for transferring power from the piston to the crank shaft and sending it to
the transmission. There are different types of materials and production methods used in the
creation of connecting rods. The most common types of connecting rods are steel and aluminum.
The most common types of manufacturing processes are casting, forging and powered
metallurgy. Connecting rods are widely used in variety of engines such as, in-line engines,
opposed-piston engines. A connecting rod consists of a pin-end, a shank section, and a crank-end.
Pin-end and crank-end pinholes at the upper and lower ends are machined to permit accurate
fitting of bearings. These holes must be parallel. The upper end of the connecting rod is
connected to be piston by the piston pin. If the piston pin is locked in the piston pin bosses or if it
floats in the piston and the connecting rod, the upper hole of the connecting rod will have a solid
bearing(bushing) of Bronze or a similar material. As the lower end of the connecting rod
revolves with the crank shaft, the upper end is forced to turn back and forth on the piston pin.
Although this movement is slight hence the bushing is necessary because of the high pressure
and temperatures. The lower hole in the connecting rod is split to permit it to be clamped around
the crankshaft. The bottom part, or cap, is made of the same material as the rod and is attached
by two bolts. The surface that bears on the crankshaft is generally a bearing material in the form
of a separate split shell. The two parts of the bearing are positioned in the rod and cap by dowel
pins, projections, or short brass screws. Split bearings may be of the precision or semi precision
type. From the viewpoint of functionality, connecting rods must have the highest possible
rigidity at the lowest weight.
The function of connecting rod is to transmit the thrust of the piston to the crankshaft. The role of
connecting rod in the conversion of reciprocating motion into rotary motion. A four strokes are
intake, compression, power, and exhaust. Each stroke requires approximately 180 degrees of

crankshaft rotation, so the complete cycle would take 720 degrees. Each stroke plays a very
important role in the combustion process.

Project start

Engine data sheet

Customer required needs

Phase 1

Geometry Baseline

Phase 2

Loads Calculation

redesign

Phase 3

Structural FEA

Is The Safety Factor Acceptable?

Output

Fatigue safety factor

Y
Phase 4

Final Technical Repot

Project end

Detailed Drawing

Figure 1 Connecting rod development phases

the stress induced in the small end of the connecting rod are greater than the stresses
induced at the bigger end, therefore the chances of failure of the connecting rod may be at
the fillet section of both end.
Dynamic load analysis was performed to determine the in service loading of the
connecting rod and FEA was conducted to find the stress at critical locations.
Project objectives
The Fatigue Numerical Analysis and Life Prediction of Connecting Rod for forged steel had
several aims: To determine the ratio of the fatigue limit in alternating tension/compression for a smooth
test bar to the ultimate tensile stress.
To determine the fatigue limit of a notched test bar both with alternating
tension/compression and with a nominal m e a n stress equal to the yield stress.
To find the notch sensitivity of this steel.
To explore weight reduction opportunities for a production forged steel connecting rod.
To determine the lifespan of connecting rod due to cyclic loading. The results were
carried out under fully reversed loading.
To reduce weight of the existing connecting rod with desired strength.
To determine the Von Misses stresses, Shear stresses, Equivalent Alternating stress, Total
Deformation and Fatigue Analysis.
SPECIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

fatigue numerical analysis and life prediction of connecting rod made of Forged steel. Steel
materials are used to fatigue numerical analysis and life prediction of connecting rod. In this
project the material (carbon steel) of connecting rod replaced with Forged steel. Connecting rod
was created in solid work / pro. engineer wildfire 5.0. Model is imported in ANSYS 15.0 for
analysis. After analysis a comparison is made between existing steel connecting rod viz., Forged
steel in terms of weight, factor of safety, stiffens, deformation and stress.
METHODOLOGY.
Here we use method for optimization of connecting rod. First step is the model creation.
Themodel is created with command line interface with the use of ANSYS software. We have
performed command line interface to model the connecting rod. Various dimensional parameters
are fed into the program, thus this makes the parametric approach under command line interface,
and thus programming is called PARAMETRIC MODELING. One of the main scope of
parametric program modelling is that once the basic program for the modelling is generated we
can model the connecting rod of various sizes by just changing the values of the parameters in
program.Meshing, load and constraints are also applied via command line interface. Now main
step of optimization is also carried with command line program.Program for optimization has
been prepared to follow loops or iterations. ANSYS software carry out each loop and finds out
the weight of connecting rod and accordingly it changes the dimensional parameters within the
specified limits. ANSYS continues subsequent loop until the optimized weight is obtained and it
takes care that dimensional parameters do not go beyond specified limits and maximum
allowable stress.
Result
An axial Load is applied on the connecting rod at the small end, and cylindrical support is given
at the crank end. The same loading conditions also applied for the buckling load. For fatigue
failure analysis the loading conditions are fully reversed.
FEA RESULT OF CONNECTING ROD
The load applied at the piston end and cylindrical support was given at the crank end. Two cases
are analyzed for each case, one with load applied at the crank end and restrained at the piston pin
end, and the other with load applied at the piston pin end and restrained at the crank end. The
analysis carried out under axial and buckling loads. Here the tensile or compressive load was
equal to 4319N and buckling load is equal to 21598N. And after that comparisons were made for
optimization purpose. The static results are shown in figures given below.
VII. RESULT FOR OPTIMIZATION
The optimization task was to minimize the mass of the connecting rod under the effect of a load
range for two extreme loads, the peak compressive gas load and the tensile load within the limits
of the allowable stresses. The result of weight reduction for optimized connecting rod is given
below in table 3.
RESULTS OF FINITE ELEMENT STRESS ANALYSIS

III. FEA OF CONNECTING ROD

Finite element analysis (FEA) has become
common place in recent years, and is now the basis of
a multibillion dollar per year industry. Numerical
solutions to even very complicated stress problems
can now be obtained routinely using FEA, and the
method is so important that even introductory
treatments of mechanics of materials such as these
modules should outline its principal features.
H.B.Ramani has do Analysis of Connecting
Rod under Different Loading Condition Using
ANSYS Software [1].In spite of the great power of
FEA, the disadvantages of computer solutions must be kept in mind when using this and
similar methods, they do not necessarily reveal how the stresses are influenced by
important problem variables such as materials properties and geometrical features, and
errors in input data can produce wildly incorrect results that may be overlooked by the
analyst. Finite element codes are less complicated than many of the word processing and
spreadsheet packages found on modern microcomputers. Nevertheless, they are complex
enough that most users do not find it effective to program their own code. A number of
prewritten commercial codes are available, representing a broad price range and
compatible with machines from microcomputers to supercomputers. However, users with
specialized needs should not necessarily shy away from code development, and may find
the code sources available in such texts as that by O.C. Zienkiewicz to be a useful starting
point. Most finite element software is written in FORTRAN, but some newer codes such as
felt are in C or other more modern programming languages. During meshing 1mm node
size is perfect preferable for analysis so for 1mm meshing size our connecting road have
179355 elements and 304977 nodes. And then on this element boundary condition will
apply.
VIII. CONCLUSION
x It was found that the design parameter of connecting rod with modification gives sufficient
improvement in the existing results. x The stress was found maximum at the piston end. This can
be reduced by increasing the material near the piston end. x The weight of the connecting rod
was also reduced by 0.004 kg which was not significant but reduces the inertia forces. x Fatigue
strength plays the most significant role (design driving factor) in the optimization of this
connecting rod. x Optimization was performed to reduce weight of the existing connecting rod.

This optimization can also be achieved by changing the current forged steel connecting rod into
some other materials such as C-70 steel etc.